After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago, the British and French governments signed the secret Sykes-Picot agreement, an arbitrary border demarcation often held responsible for the current problems of the Middle East. Dr. Michael Borchard, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Israel Office, has a different view on the matter. “I wouldn’t say that Sykes-Picot was ‘the root of all evil’, but the way the borders were drawn certainly suggests a lack of knowledge about the Middle East,” said Dr. Borchard in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

The Agreement forced different religious groups, each with their own identity, to share a state together. This concept of so-called “Westphalian” states with clear borders was entirely new to the region and was the cause of many problems. “The biggest problem, however, was that the dynamics between the various Islamic groups was vastly underestimated,” said Borchard. The Muslim Brotherhood, an organization which then provided the foundations for Jihadist movements, was founded shortly after the Agreement was signed.

The current-day so-called Islamic State ignores the borders accepted under international law. Borchard views this as a danger to Israel, since the regional borders have become unstable, but he also notes that the threat has evolved. “Israel has assumed so far that it’s merely Sunnis fighting Shi’as”. “The current threat is very much against Israel”. Not only reports of ISIS training camps being erected in the Sinai Peninsula, but also increasingly anti-Israel rhetoric from ISIS itself, reinforce his feelings. “The wind is becoming rawer and more dangerous,” determines Borchard.